Rosie & Chris

Rosie & Chris were married on 25th July 2014 at Jesmond Dene House on a beautiful sunny day, in fact one of the hottest days of the year! Here is their wedding story as told by Rosie........

Chris had been working away in Canada and it was the first time we’d been apart for longer than a couple of days, we both struggled and hated not seeing each other! Whilst away Chris decided he was going to propose when he was back home, even planning to go shopping for a ring the very same day he got back! But as he was sitting in the airport he realised his departure lounge was situated directly opposite Tiffany’s the jewelers, he browsed the ring section and came across the most beautiful ring which he knew would suit me!

Chris proposed in the living room the day that he got home whilst we were watching a film in our pyjamas, he asked me to go fetch him a cup of tea from the kitchen whilst he decorated the living room with candles, it was so simple yet so perfect. We went round to our parent’s house half an hour after to share the happy news and opened a bottle of bubbly!

We got married at Jesmond Dene House in Newcastle. Having been a singer for most of my life I’ve sang at a few wedding venues around the North East , JDH is one of the only ones I’ve never worked at. It was the very first venue we went to look at together, neither of us had been before and from the moment we drove into the car park we fell in love.

The building itself is a work of art, with it’s stunning brick work and beautiful gardens. The staff there were fantastic from the off, they couldn’t have been more inviting. Abigail the wedding coordinator for JDH showed us around and explained the history of the house and exactly how the day would happen, she was brilliant and wasn’t phased by Chris and I bombarding her with questions and acting like giddy children!

My dress was made by a local company called House Of Mooshki. I originally went there to try on a short dress but when I tried it on I didn’t feel ‘bridey’ enough, Vicki who owns the company and her mam Dee (nana Mooshki) explained that they can design and make a dress to suit any bride and it can be anything you want!! This sold me straight away! As I’m quite short I find it really hard to find a long dress which suits me, so I designed my own! I chose to have heavy lace all over the dress, with capped sleeves and a fishtail bottom, I felt so elegant on the day and everyone commented on the dress. It made me feel really special that I was able to design my own dress and that it was original and nobody else would ever have it.

My hair and make up was done by ND Make up, the girls there are fabulous! I decided to go for a natural look as I don’t wear heavy make up on a day to day basis. They incorporated the bridesmaids dress colour into their eye make up which looked gorgeous and none of us had to re apply all day! Perfect.

We originally booked a photographer from the North East but about 8 months before the wedding she had to cancel due to her having a baby, we were obviously disappointed about it but she was brilliant and recommended other photographers with a similar style and also checked their availability for the day of our wedding, so all we had to do was pick one! We went for Naomi Kenton in the end as the gallery on her website was beautiful. She specialises in using natural light and has a vintage style which we loved and would fit our theme nicely.

We decided to get everything form The Finishing Touch Company, as we knew they would do an excellent job! When we first went to meet up with Charlotte our heads were full of ideas, she was great at making them come to life, and nothing was a problem.

We chose simple colours, lots of whites, creams and pastels, to fit in with the summer vintage theme. For my bouquet and table centerpieces we chose complimenting flowers in this palette in Hydrangeas, roses, Lisianthus, Stocks with a touch of Rosemary. The results were stunning & the best I had ever seen!

The table flowers were arranged in vintage wooden crates, which really injected into the whole laid back vintage theme. I am a huge fan of lace so tried to incorporate it as much as possible! We had lace wrapped around jam jars and vintage books wrapped in lace on each of our tables which looked stunning on the day, the table cloths were covered with lace to give an extra hint of luxury and vintage. I was so impressed with the decoration on the top table, which was an overgrown take on a traditional long & low arrangement, it was just stunning.

It’s hard to pick but I would say my favorite things on the day from The Finishing Touch Company would have to be the crates at the entrance of JDH, the old step ladders which were decorated with vintage photo frames and used for our table plan and lastly our stunning flower arrangements which we got to keep and give out to family the morning after the wedding.

The Finishing Touch Company were fantastic and totally brought all our ideas to life! I entrusted them completely and was blown away by the results, as was everyone else

We only hired a wedding car for the drive to JDH, myself and my bridesmaids were driven from our house in South Shields to JDH in a Mercedes Limo, which was nice!

We decided to go with live music and DJ, we had a band from London called the Bluejays who have a rockabilly style and sing the songs of the 50’s, they were brilliant!

Our DJ’s were Benny and Lucas, Benny is Examples DJ when he is on tour and they are both personal friends of ours, they played us out on the night and kept the dance floor jam packed!

The cake was all down to Chris as he is the biggest cake lover I’ve ever known!! He chose to go with a company called Symphony in Sugar who had made his birthday cake the year before. He chose to have a four-tiered cake, which was covered in cream icing and had lace icing all over and adorned with large sugar roses matching the colour scheme. I have to say he did a brilliant job as it was gorgeous! and tasted incredible! The first layer was vanilla sponge with a jam and cream filling, second was chocolate and butterscotch (our favourite!) and the top two layers were red velvet, delicious!! The guys who run Symphony in Sugar were just brilliant and we’re expecting a special Christmas parcel from them next week! Couldn’t recommend them highly enough.

We had seasonal salad with Parma ham to start, pork with creamy mash, black pudding and apple sauce for our mains and apple crumble with ginger ice cream for our desserts, it was delicious! Although I wish I could eat it again as on the day I couldn’t eat a thing I was so excited!

I found Pinterest really helpful for getting hints and tips for our day, also word of mouth and wedding fairs helped me find inspiration and companies.

Our wedding was pretty straight forward! No hidden dance routines or surprises, just a bunch of people we love having a good old knees up! Oh one thing which we did realise on the day, was that it was the hottest day of the year! Which was fantastic.

I think the best tip is to not panic, a wedding is whatever you make of it. Don’t try to keep up with 'The Joneses' or have too much going on, I think the simpler the better as it goes by so fast you can’t keep track of everything!! A tip in which I am telling everyone I know who is getting married is to get your wedding filmed if you can, we did and it’s been the best thing we did! Being able to watch it back was just magical. Unified Media did ours and they were great and the finished product is better than we ever imagined.

Venue Flowers & table decorations: Each guest table had a vintage crate filled with seasonal blooms to match the bouquets & buttonholes. We used vintage books, jam jars with roses and scented stocks & lace covered jam jars with candles to accessorise the tables. The top table had an abundant long & low floral arrangement with accessories to match the guest tables.

Table plan: Vintage ladders, shabby chic frames and jam jars filled with blooms created a showstopper of a table plan!

The finishing touches: Large floral arrangements were used in the ceremony in floorstanding zinc buckets. The doorway to Jesmond Dene House was styled with apple crates and lots of beautiful blooms! We used a vintage suitcase for the guest to place the wedding cards in.